Wednesday 22 September 2010
Tuesday 31 August 2010
Exhibition of Documentation
Woodlane Campus, Falmouth, Cornwall
7th-11th September, 10am-5pm
The exhibition displays documentation of the live art event, Art Hub. It experiments with different ways of recording performance art, and examines the legacies that are formed.
The live event featured a programme of performances which explored intimacy in contemporary culture, reacting to the impact of online technologies on human relations. It took place at The Poly on the evening of Saturday 21st August, with an afternoon performance on Falmouth Moor on the same day. The featured artists were Bryony Gillard, Hedva Eltanani, Kathryn Ashill, Kimbal Bumstead, Susan Mortimer and Zierle & Carter. These artists investigated the dynamics of interaction through collaboration, exchange and touch, occurring in both physical and virtual space.
The selection of artists has enabled a range of documentation techniques to be investigated, such as archival objects, photography and video. For several of the artists documents, products or traces are significant in their work. Kimbal Bumstead has stated, ‘I am interested in using physical materials and documentation processes as a way of exploring physical interaction. Both process and product are equally important.’ The displayed objects communicate the narratives of past actions. Many are valuable as traces of the processes which altered, involved or made them, and others were produced after the performance as illustrations of the work. The photographs present framed moments which construct specific interpretations. The video and audio recordings offer multisensory representations, but at the same time are still selective. These various mediums collaborate to achieve dynamic and considered depictions, forming new arrangements and interpretations of the performances. In contemporary live art practice the ephemeral nature of the discipline often challenges the concept of ‘permanent’ documentation; however it is important to develop a history of the discipline for critique and future practice.
LAB4, Hedva Eltanani
Photography: Anon; Andreia Pocas
Hedva Eltanani’s finale to the event was LAB4, which connected the audience at The Poly with another in London. The two locations were linked via live-feed technology, using webcams so that the groups could see each other. Eltanani led a series of activities such as ‘truth or dare’, which engaged the two audiences and also bonded the participants within each group. LAB4 was a chapter in Eltanani’s research into digital performance and how it can be used to create innovative audience experiences. This performance focused on the construction of relationships and communities across virtual space, exploring both the advantages and challenges of online technologies.
Exhibition of documentation
Friend Request, Kathryn Ashill
Photography: Andreia Pocas
In Friend Request by Kathryn Ashill, the artist wore a white dress and stood inside of a circle marked on the floor with chalk and labelled ‘Kathryn Ashill’s Profile’. An adjacent wall panel inscribed in blue outlined instructions to the audience, and blue ribbons hung down from it. As members of the audience approached Ashill, they collected a ribbon and tied it to the artist’s wrist, ankle, or place of choice, with the other end of the ribbon then tied to themselves. Once connected, Ashill introduced herself and described her ‘likes’ then kissed the participant’s cheek and encouraged them to exchange details about themselves. As the performance developed, the gathering of people around Ashill grew, meaning that each exchange was more public. Kathryn invited participants to write on her dress which was her ‘wall’. This performance created a physical representation of relationships formed on online networks such as Facebook, and depicted Ashill’s concerns with the social impacts of these networks.
Exhibition of documentation
Touch Tent, Kimbal Bumstead
Photography: Andreia Pocas; Kimbal Bumstead
Kimbal Bumstead’s Touch Tent, which was secreted in the corner of the event space, disclosed only movements against the tent’s sides and the scent of essential oils to onlookers. The shoes of participants left at the entrance signified when it was occupied. Individuals were led into the tent by the artist’s hand whilst made to stoop. Inside, Bumstead wore a large black sphere to conceal his head, and in rejection of the common reliance on vision he proceeded to touch participants’ faces, drawing what he sensed into a sketchbook with a stick of graphite. The interaction felt exceptionally intimate, as if secluded from the outside and receiving something exclusive; however the sketchbook’s collection of drawings shows how each encounter was one of many.
Exhibition of documentation
Absent Engagement, Zierle & Carter
Photography: Pedro Gil, directed by Zierle & Carter
Zierle & Carter’s Absent Engagement invited lone participants on a journey into the dark cinema, led by torchlight. Instructions in envelopes initiated exchanges between pairs, exploring ways of communication which required imagination and challenged usual social boundaries. The limited availability of this performance simulated mystery and inquisition.
Exhibition of documentation
Walk the Line, Susan Mortimer
The event at The Poly opened with Susan Mortimer’s Walking the Line. The artist’s image was projected into the event space via live-feed technology as she performed in a studio in Durham. Mortimer walked continuously over four hours, following a blue line that was taped to the floor. Spectators became physical counterparts by enacting her movements on a line in The Poly. As Mortimer existed both physically in Durham and virtually in Falmouth, it depicted her concerns about the identity of the body in cultural space as advancing technologies cause significant shifts.
Exhibition of documentation
Nail Art, Bryony Gillard
Art Hub commenced with Bryony Gillard’s pop-up nail bar, Nail Art on Falmouth Moor. Gillard collaborated with a local nail technician and created five nail designs inspired by famous artworks. Passers-by were given free nail painting with these designs, and as the technician gave the service she spoke about her knowledge of the artwork. Nail Art explored intimacy through the giving of this popular service which can only be done by an artisan as opposed to a machine. The exchange of knowledge between the technician and participants also achieved bonding and challenged the social barriers surrounding art, regarding its hierarchical position. Nail Art’s location on Falmouth Moor mixed with the local shoppers and traders.
Creative Claws, nail and beauty salon, Helston
Exhibition of documentation
Saturday 14 August 2010
Kathryn Ashill
Statement of Practice
Kathryn Ashill uses touch within her practice in order to reconnect with people and site. The artist believes that a unique perspective is gained through these embodied encounters of a social and physical landscape. Ashill also aims to highlight the British reserve and the problems of personal space through her simple durational performances. Collaboration is a key element to the artists work as her performances focus around social interaction and interventions.
The performances are often in response to personal experiences, her understanding of a landscape and the people within that given environment. The artist has invited kissing, touching, hugging, squeezing, washing and holding to forge a bond with participants and the locality.
Art Hub
Friend Request
You are invited to confirm or ignore Kathryn’s friend request. In confirming the new friendship you will become physically linked to her. The artist is hoping to create an embodied, physical social network in response to her removed experiences of socialising on networking sites.
Biography
Kathryn Ashill graduated from the BA Fine Art (Combined Media) at Swansea Metropolitan University in 2007 with first class honours. In view of her Tawe Performances 06-08 she was the recipient of the Mission Gallery’s Student Prize in 2007. Kathryn has collaborated with a variety of businesses and social groups (including a leech farm in Hendy, South Wales) to produce site specific performances. Her work often takes place in the public domain, busy city centres, rivers, workplaces, home. These live, public performances are documented through film and photography.
Kathryn recently created a new site specific performance for Milton Keynes Gallery, and has just returned from a residency CERBYD in which she was selected to travel Wales on a bus with 9 other Artist’s in the pursuit of new collaborations.
Ashill has recently been awarded an Arts Council of Wales grant to undertake a residency at Craig Y Nos Castle where the artist intends on creating a series of new site specific performances. The outcomes of this project will be exhibited in her first solo exhibition at Pontardawe Arts Centre in October 2010.
Link
Axis Profile
Wednesday 11 August 2010
Art Hub Programme
Saturday 21st August
Falmouth Moor:
12-3pm Bryony Gillard, Nail Art
The Poly:
6.30-10.30pm Susan Mortimer, Walk the Line
7-11pm Kimble Bumstead, Touch Tent
8-9pm Kathryn Ashill
7-10pm Zierle & Carter, Absent Engagement
10-10.30pm Hedva Eltanani, LAB4
Falmouth Moor:
12-3pm Bryony Gillard, Nail Art
The Poly:
6.30-10.30pm Susan Mortimer, Walk the Line
7-11pm Kimble Bumstead, Touch Tent
8-9pm Kathryn Ashill
7-10pm Zierle & Carter, Absent Engagement
10-10.30pm Hedva Eltanani, LAB4
Sunday 1 August 2010
Monday 26 July 2010
Zierle & Carter
Artist Statement
Alexandra Zierle and Paul Carter's collaborative work is interdisciplinary, multi-sensory and site and context responsive spanning from live art/performance art, happenings and interventions, to sound, video and installation. Through their practice, Zierle & Carter critically examine different modes of communication and what it means to be human both as individuals and as a collective entity. Their work addresses notions of belonging, cultural identity, the dynamics within relationships, harmony through conflict and the transformation of limitations.
Rooted in a fine art context their work adopts a simple yet rich visual aesthetic, which employs various approaches and guises. The work fundamentally explores societys conventions, traditions and rituals both old and new, often flipping them on their head, peeling them back, reversing orders and disrupting the norm. Zierle and Carter's work sites an embodied investigation into human interactions with their immediate environment and exemplifies a profound curiosity of the unknown, the void, of embodiment, and the now.
Art Hub
Absent Engagement
You are invited on a journey into the dark of a cinema, led by torchlight. Here you will find what is not there and discover a way of communicating that doesn’t involve speech but requires your imagination to guide the dialogue.
The work is shaped by the audience’s interactions, each performance holds the key to the next journey and by the end of the evening the fragments delivered by each participant will tell an intimate story.
Biography
Zierle & Carter's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including MOMA, New York, US and Plymouth Arts Centre, UK as part of Marina Abramovics Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art and The Pigs of Today are the Hams of Tomorrow. Their work has been shown at IMAF 2009, Odzaci, Serbia; Exit-ence and Exist in 08, Brisbane, Australia; Contaminate, Boston, US; Beyond the Abject, Collision 08 Festival, Area10 project space, London; Videophile, Phoenix Gallery, Brighton; Buenos Aires Zonadeartenacción - Foto y Video Acción 2007 and Bases and Conditions, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Transitions, Out of Bounds and Invigorate, The Exchange and Wastelands at Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance.
In 2006 Zierle & Carter received the Ferdinand Zweig Memorial Scholarship to produce new work in Patagonia, Argentina. As members of The Western Alliance we have presented To Good To Be True, URGENCY/AGENCY Residency exhibition with The Western Alliance and Turkish artists Iz Oztat and Volkan Aslan as part of the Visiting Arts Artists to Artist scheme, The Delfina Foundation, London, UK.
Further information to be added soon.
Links
Artist Website
Thursday 22 July 2010
Kimbal Bumstead
Summary of Practice
Kimbal Bumstead's ongoing research is into performer- participant relationships and the documentation of intimacy. He works with people as his subject matter - bodies and faces - exploring the issues surrounding physical contact and control through live interaction and sensory experiences. His work is about the here and now- about you and your relationship to touch.
Bumstead plays with the power relations that exist between the performer and the participant, where mutual vulnerabilities and insecurities are exposed, it's about being human and lovingly tortured.
There are two vital facets to his work that intertwine and support each other: the physical experience of interacting with another human through touch, and the process of documenting that experience through photography, video, drawing and email correspondence.
Art Hub
Touch Tent is a nylon dome tent with two people in it - a private installation for one audience member at a time. Inside there are rules. This is a performance with aims and objectives. You do not have to do anything. It's an experience for you. The rules will be broken once you go inside.
A man encapsulated in a cannonball wants to draw your portrait, he cannot see you but he knows you are there.
This performance is part of the artist's Touch Drawing project in which he constructs portraits based on the journey of touch across the face, discovering cheek bones, sockets, flesh, scars, he documents this journey with a stick of graphite on paper. Each sheet is then also marked with the audience member's email address. A few days later, they receive a photograph of their drawing.
Biography
Kimbal Bumstead graduated with a first class BA in Fine Art and Art History from the University of Leeds and is currently completing his MA in Performance and Theatre from Queen Mary University of London.
He has exhibited and performed solo work worldwide, in Russia, Mongolia, Vietnam and Poland. He recently performed and exhibited at the Beijing Biennale in China, Transit Station: Art as Event in Copenhagen, Denmark, Act Art 8, London, Wrong Love at the A Foundation, Liverpool, and North By Northwest at Tate Liverpool.
He lives and works in London.
Links
Artist Website
Tuesday 20 July 2010
Event Venue
Art Hub will take place at The Poly in the centre of Falmouth.
The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society is a charity dedicated to promotion of the arts and science in the county of Cornwall since 1833. Operating out of The Poly building in the heart of Falmouth and working with the local community, the RCPS hopes to provide an arts, science and educational space for the people of Cornwall for many years to come.
[http://www.thepoly.org/, accessed 20/07/10]
For more information visit The Poly's website
Satellite Performance
Nail Art by Bryony Gillard will happen on Falmouth Moor on the afternoon of Art Hub [21st August] from 12pm until 3pm.
Monday 19 July 2010
Hedva Eltanani
Summary of Practice
Hedva Eltanani's practice is intertwined with theoretical research. She focuses on how digital technology may affect audience experience and their relationship with the performance. These days she is devising series of LABs in order to explore particular elements. Each LAB is devised around a specific question that guides the work. The elements are chosen in order to bring out an understanding of the audience experience and the kinds of experiences it may open for the audience. The artist also collaborates with other practitioners on various projects. She is mainly involved in projects of Physical Theatre, Interactive Theatre, and Devised Theatre.
The theoretical research informs the practice. The performances feed the theory. After having Blast Theory as a case study, producing different labs and experiments and taking part in different kind of performance she is working on her first article in regard to her research.
LAB4
This is a journey of communication between two places. It is a game that challenges the audience to bend the boundaries of space, interaction and intimacy. Live online performance is carried out for the audience in the Art Hub. London is brought into Falmouth and vice versa. They are connected by streaming media and web applications. The structure enables the participants to follow different stations. Each station is a short game which challenges elements of group dynamics and technology.
How intimate will it go? The participants are being invited to deepen the connection by keeping this community active using web applications.
LAB4 is an exploration of communication between two places using streaming media and web applications. It is another step in a series of LABs that explore digital technology and audience interaction. It is part of a research on digital performance and the way it affects audience experience.
Biography
Hedva Eltanani graduated MA Advanced Theatre Practice from Central school of Speech and Drama. She researches the various usages of technology within live performances and the way they affect the relationship between the performance and the participants. Her research intertwines academic and practical research.
She presents her research in different conferences such as 'JAM 2010 – The Audience Spectacular' in Reading University; DRHA 2010 conference in Brunel University and TaPRA 2010 conference in Cardiff University. Her recent collaborations were: "Scenes From the Iliad" original play devised by "Flying Dutchman"; an adaptation of "The Trial" by Project K; "The Hall" by 19;29 and adaptation of "Crime and Punishment" by Ashes and Diamonds. Now she is creating a series of devised LABs performances, each LAB explores different aspect of her research.
More details are in: http://vs4rslab.wordpress.com/about/
Bryony Gillard
Summary of Practice
Situated somewhere between sculpture, performance and event; Gillard’s practice draws upon common social forms of interaction or traditional customs, often celebrations, sports and games. She is interested in exploring the role of social archetypes in these situations – Winner/Loser and Referee, Teacher/Student, Parent/Child.
Often working in collaboration with artists or with social groups, physical participation is integral to the work. Gillard explores the idea of camaraderie and how art can bring people together.
Nail Art
Between 12 and 3pm on 21st August, members of the public will be invited to have their nails manicured in the style of one of four famous artworks. Amanda Carey, a locally based nail artist will create the participant’s chosen style, and instead of purely performing a service, she will discuss the specific artist’s work with the participant.
The activity aims to explore the divide between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art, inversions of hierarchies and the translation, transference and value of knowledge.
The participant will not only leave the activity physically altered, but will have contributed to an ongoing conversation about the artists chosen for the designs. These designs combine the visual languages of Art and the cult craft of ‘Nail Art’ and also pose the question of the role of the Artisan within contemporary society. The hierarchy between the client (participant) and technician is reversed, as the technician provides the additional role or service of instructor.
Biography
Bryony Gillard is an artist and curator based in the southwest.
She is a Director of Project Space 11 – the first artist-led space in Plymouth. Earlier this year she was selected as PVAC Associate Artist for Plymouth College of Art and supports her practice by working as Programme Assistant at Plymouth Arts Centre.
Recent projects include a residency during Transition at The Exchange, Cornwall, a curatorial project – Take Place at Spacex, Exeter, a performance lecture for ‘Free School. Lecture Hall’, East London and later this year an exhibition, The Sutton Youth Initiative at The Gallery, Plymouth College of Art.
Links
Artist Blog
Susan Mortimer
Walk the Line
For Art Hub, Susan Mortimer performs Walk the Line. The performance is a live cast actuation work, which questions the role of the body in society.
In the performance the artist will walk repeatedly around a taped blue line, which forms a square on the floor of her studio. Through the inexpressive action of walking, Mortimer questions the function of the body as site for social inscription and its significance in the development of 'the self'. The artist's concerns are reflective of contemporary society, where advancing technologies are impacting on the lived experience of the physical body and the construction of identities.
The taped blue line is representative of society's boundaries which aim to achieve social cohesion through dictating our adherence to taboos, moral codes and expectations of behaviour. As an example of popular expression of such social customs, Mortimer chose the Johnny Cash song 'I Walk The Line' as a starting point to her work.
Summary of Practice
Susan Mortimer's practice examines connections between impassive movements such as walking, the body as site of social inscription, and the construction of identities.
Mortimer works with the mediums of video, live broadcast and photography; exploring the responsibilities of the artist as she performs in front of the lens, and investigating the expression of the body through the languages of these mediums.
Actions such as walking signify embodiment and engagement of the physical body, examining its role in the digital age. Mortimer is concerned with the impacts of digital technologies on social communication and the effects, which the absence of the body in such interactions will have on the coherence of social structures.
Biography
Current:
MA Digital Arts, Camberwell College, University of the Arts, London
Ongoing:
Mail Art One Zine, distributed through Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead, DLI Gallery Durham, Northern Print Studios, London, LPS London
Exhibitions:
Act Art Censored, London, July 2010
Glasgow International Book Fair, April 2010
Oxhouse Online Alphabet, 2010
Mail Art Exhibition, Long Gallery, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, 2010
(Curated by Alison Stockwell and Susan Mortimer)
Salon, Open exhibition at the Temporary Art Space, Halifax, Yorkshire, 2009
Steps August 2009, Peep Warbrobe Gallery, Halifax, 2009
Field Show, Emptyshop Gallery, Durham, 2009
Interim Show, Camberwell College, University of the Arts, London, 2008
Links
Artist Website
Artists
Participating Artists in Art Hub:
Bryony Gillard
Hedva Eltanani
Kathryn Ashill
Kimbal Bumstead
Susan Mortimer
Zierle & Carter
Bryony Gillard
Hedva Eltanani
Kathryn Ashill
Kimbal Bumstead
Susan Mortimer
Zierle & Carter
Thursday 15 July 2010
About
Art Hub is a Live Art event investigating social connectivity. A programme of performances explores the dynamics of interaction, as the replacement of face-to-face conversation with online networking causes social distance.
The event will take place at The Poly on Saturday 21st August from 6.30pm until 11pm. An afternoon performance will also happen on Falmouth Moor from 12pm until 3pm on the same day.
Selected artists examine notions of intimacy, collaboration and exchange; occurring in both physical and virtual space and questioning the impact of online technologies on contemporary culture. The featured artists are Bryony Gillard, Hedva Eltanani, Kathryn Ashill, Kimbal Bumstead, Susan Mortimer and Zierle & Carter.
Art Hub happens at a significant point in time for Live Art in Cornwall, with the launch of the Performance Centre at University College Falmouth, scheduled this autumn.
The event will be followed by an exhibition of documentation, to open at Woodlane Campus from Tuesday 7th until Saturday 11th September.
All admissions free of charge.
Visitor Information:
The Poly
24 Church Street
Falmouth
Cornwall
TR11 3EG
Website: arthubfalmouth.blogspot.com
Contact: arthubfalmouth@gmail.com
Rachel Entwistle, Curator
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